[go: up one dir, main page]

Lynne Sargent

Writer Lynne Sargent

Summer in Bloom — June 19, 2026
Lynne, a femme-presenting person with blue hair and fair skin, wears a black jumpsuit with gold detailing and stands in front of a waterfall.

Summer in Bloom

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/Leave a comment

Writing often feels like it reflects the natural seasons– sometimes there is bloom and bounty and sometimes we all need a quiet Winter to rest and recharge. Right now, things are in bloom though, and I’m getting to enjoy the flowers.

Since I last wrote, I’ve had one short story and four poems come out.

Find “The Once Green Forest of my Lungs,” in Rotting Leaf magazine, along with an accompanying non-fiction essay with my thoughts on Eco-Fiction more broadly. Eco-fiction is one of the topics I keep returning to again and again. It’s a theme that for me has a lot of complexity, depth, and importance in the current moment.

On the poetry side, you can find, “The Vampire Contemplates Skincare,” out with Small Wonders, “Unabashed Appetite,” in Penumbric, and “September’s Bounty,” as well as “Human Cultivars,” in various issues of Polar Starlight.

I also had the delight to learn that alongside my two Rhysling-nominated poems (“The Lowest Kind of Fable” (Just Keep Up Magazine) & “Swamp Witch Season,” Solarpunk), “The Point of Measurement” has been shortlisted for the Dwarf Star award. I now have proofs for these anthologies, and am really looking forward to reading all the rest of shortlisted works. Also, the art for the Rhysling anthology in particular is STUNNING. Voting for those awards is via the SFPA and opens in July.

I am also so pleased to announce that my essay “Speculative Poetry and the Hugos,” made the Aurora Awards shortlist for Best Fan Writing. Aurora Award voting is open until July 18. As a reminder, the SPI initiative is trying to make the Hugo award for poetry PERMANENT. We’ve had some really lovely supportive con committees the last few years, who have championed a temporary Hugo for poetry, and voting/nominations have indicated a strong interest in this category. This year, we will be raising the issue for a second year at the WSFS business meetings, and assuming that goes well we will have a permanent Hugo for poetry! If you’re attending WorldCon either in person or virtually, consider coming to the WSFS business meetings and voting in favour of our cause.

In slightly sadder news, the publisher of my first poetry collection A Refuge of Tales, Renaissance Press, will be shutting down at the end of 2026. If you want to ensure you get a copy before it goes out of print, you only have a few months left to do so! I am in the process of determining if I can have or buy the layouts to hopefully keep digital copies available through an online storefront, but I have no guarantees of that at the present moment.

In the background, I continue to work on a new speculative poetry collection, and I’m querying my most recent novel (a near-future genre-blending story that imagines fairytales and fairytale characters in an AI-driven dystopia). I attended my first WisCon virtually and it was truly as great as everyone has always said. It was great to be able to attend virtually and participate on panels like “Crossdressing Sword Girls,” and “Anarchist Tech.” I hope that there is a day in the future where it is safe to travel to the US again and where I can attend in person. I also had the pleasure of getting some new headshots done recently in anticipation of Not Just Playing Make Believe coming out in 2027. The photo that accompanies this post was one that didn’t quite 100% work as a headshot, but that I am very fond of nonetheless.

On the reading side, I recently finished Courtney Floyd’s Higher Magic, and have been recommending it to everybody. I loved the way it re-imagined the Dark Academia subgenre in a way that felt real and trod new ground in terms of its focus on the ableism of the academy. Also, narration is totally 100% magic.

On the poetry side of things, I loved Ian Li’s “Your Cause and Your Effect,” about how meaningful teachers are in their student’s lives. I am also adored Ash Vale’s “Consumed,” which rang very true to my experience of bieng non-binary. Ali Trotta also has a new poem out, “When Death Comes, Look to the Tower,” I could not be a bigger fangirl of hers and I am so excited for her forthcoming Offerings for Ordinary Gods.

Expect another update early in the Fall, probably a few weeks before Can*Con when I can share my schedule. I have just booked my hotel room, and am so excited to be attending. It is a con that feels like home. If you’ve never been, there’s still time to make your plans for October!

xoxo

Lynne

Spring Writing Updates — March 24, 2026
a picture of Lynne, a femme 30-something, dressed in a long grey sweater and grey and blue hiking boots. They are bosing against a pair of wings made from dried flowers.

Spring Writing Updates

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/Leave a comment

It always feels to me like the stretch of Winter after Christmas is the longest time of the year, and yet, in trying to trudge through its slog, I seem to have spent all my time on that withstanding, and not enough on taking stock. This update is overdue, because well…. there’s been a lot.

First off, I’m very excited to announce that I recieved a Recommender Grant from the Ontario Arts Council to work on a new poetry collection centered around the concept of Speculative Landscapes. I’ve been digging into research and drafting, and its making me very happy. If/when this collection ends up seeing the light of day, expect poems like: Songs for Intergalactic Seas, and Elven Forest Meets Climate Apocalypse.

I’ve also had not one, not two, but THREE short stories come out, and the same number of poems out so far in 2026.

There’s “Twilight in Five Lipsticks,” out at Gavagai. It’s a slipstream flash horror piece about mysogyny and the beauty industry.

There’s “Bought, But Not Yet Paid For?” at The Sprawl Magazine. Also a flash piece! But this time a sci-phi about the justification for property rights, and what it might look like if smart homes and objects had autonomy. It’s also a small homage to one of the best Canadiana songs of all time, “The Mary Ellen Carter.”

Last but not least, there’s “This Tree Will Save the World,” out with The Ex-Puritan. It’s a cli-fi piece following an intergenerational committment to a particular tree that may or may not save the world. How can this possibly be true? You might ask. Well, you’ll have to read it to find out.

On the poetry side of things… I had the pleasure of having “The Dolphins Out Here,” published in Dreams & Nightmares‘ 40th anniversary issue, “Let’s All Get over the Butterfly Effect,” out with Polar Starlight, and “Icarus, In Darkness,” out with Trollbreath. I’m particularly fond of that last piece as a piece of both poetry and literary criticism, and if you’ve ever felt sympathetic to the character of Icarus, please do check it out.

I was also delighted to see that two of my poems from 2024 have been nominated for the Rhysling Award: “Swamp Witch Season,” and “The Lowest Kind of Fable.” Aurora and Hugo nominations are also still open, and if you’re reading for those, you can find works that I’m recommending in my eligibility post.

In the background, I’ve been working with my publisher, ECW press to start marketing my forthcoming non-fiction book NOT JUST PLAYING MAKE BELIEVE. I’m excited to dig into copyedits soon, and although the release date is still a year a way, I am dreaming of having it in my hands, and yours, so please keep an eye out for when the cover real happens and pre-orders become available. I will definitely be updating more throughout this process.

I want to finish here with a few recommendations of things I’ve really enjoyed lately. First up is M.R. Robinson’s horror flash, “Academic Neutrality“, which is a wonderful take on how it can feel to be part of a seemingly ambivalent academic institution. I also loved both the intelligence and the pathos of Mari Ness’ poem “Care for Lightning,” a take on Hera & Zeus. I also had the delight of reading an ARC of Dead Boys in Space by Sara Youngblood Gregory. It’s a wonderful high-concept poetry collection that understands the way memory and futurity are intertwined, especially when it comes to tragedies like the AIDS crisis.

Books I’ve Loved: 2025 — December 8, 2025

Books I’ve Loved: 2025

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/Leave a comment

It’s back! A round-up of my own personal favourite reads of 2025.

As a bit of introduction, the books I’m sharing here are my personal favourites, i.e. books I gave 5 stars to. They may not be what I’d recommend to you based on your own tastes, but if you want a personalized recommendation, drop a comment down below with a few of your favourites and I’ll be happy to accomodate!

These books are broken up into books published in 2025, and everything else. Otherwise they are not sorted by genre, and are presented in reverse reading order, not preference or anything else. When linking to books, I’ve linked to purchase at independent bookstores or through the publisher but they can be purchased much more widely. This list represents slightly more than 10% of my reading this year. If you want to see all the books I’ve read, my ratings, and reviews, you can do so over at my Goodreads.

2025 Books

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow

Nonfiction. Doctorow’s writing is simultaneously systematic, and incredibly funny. His work is so readable and so important for understnading our current moment. This book really felt like a culmination of the last few nonfiction works that brings together both a descriptive pathology and a proposed method of treatment.

A Philosophy of Thieves by Fran Wilde

Novel. Technically, sci-fi, but definitely more on the science is magic side rather than the hard sf side. This book reminded me of the best parts of YA sf like Scott Westerfeld, and the Now You See Me movie franchise. This makes it sound puply, and it is in that it’s fastpaced, twisty, and super readable. But this is far from pulp in the light and meaningless sense.

Cinder House by Freya Marske

Novella. Probably my favourite retelling of Cinderella in fiction. Just incredibly clever in terms of how it reworks the classic, while inventing some truly compelling characters that are wholly original. It’s tragic, and beautiful, and HOT in a way that respects just how broad both embodiement and sex are.

Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All by Sandy Hudson

Nonfiction. I went into this already being on team abolitionism, but dear god does this book really drive the necessity of that poisition home. It was fascinating to learn about the history of policing being rooted in private security, and union busting, and I was surpised to hear exactly how ineffective the police are in every area.

Myth by Terese Mason Pierre

Poetry. If you’re looking for a slice of summer in the depths of winter, this is it. There are so many incredible poems here about the magic of water, the politics of vacations and islands, and it is HOT in all senses of the word.

Saint Death’s Herald by C.S.E. Cooney

Novel. Fantasy. Cooney’s prose and worldbuilding are so incredibly top notch. This is a sequel, so I don’t want to spoil too much, but Laine, our titular Herald of Saint Death who is allergic to violence grows so much in this volume and it’s beautiful.

Seed Beetle by Mahaila Smith

Poetry. This one’s a bit of a cheat, as I was the editor on this collection. But, come on! It’s an sf novel-in-verse. It’s an epic story that spans multiple generations about resisting capitalistic eco-degradation through the power of unionizations, and also about how forces co-opt art, and artists reckon with their world– whatever state of death that world is in.

The River has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Novella. Fantasy. There is nobody like Amal when it comes to recognizing how language is magic. If anyone asks what my favourite book is period I’m saying it’s this one. It’s queer, and full of sisterhood and quiet broader criticism about the harm of borders and the way they hamper communication.

Other Books

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell

Nonfiction. A really systematic discussion of 1) why we should care about the potential of gen AI 2) current problems in the field and 3) current potential solutions to those problems or a discussion of why they are still as of yet unsolved. I was impressed at how this book felt timeless, and did not sideline the humanities importance in understanding the field.

Escaping the Body by Chloe N. Clark

Poetry. This collection is framed as a series of magic tricks harkening back to greats like Houdini, but it’s deeply concerned with the magic of pretending that embodiment is effortless. Really, you should just read this collection because everything I could say about its brilliance is done better with poetry.

Learning to Hate Yourself as a Self-Defence Mechanism by Andrea Kriz

Short Fiction Collection. Kriz’s primarily sf collection has so many interesting takes on classic sf tropes. She manages to defy storytelling expectations without ever leaving the reader feeling cheated by a twist or ambiguity in the ending. One of those collections where you really can’t pick a favourite story.

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

Novel. Fantasy. I hadn’t realized there was another installment in the Graceling series, which I’d been a fan of since the first book came out in 2008. This might be my favourite in the series. Most of these books feature different protagonists, and a consideration of what evil/monstrousness is. Hava is a deeply interesting and complicated protagonist and this Franklin-esque arctic odyssey is such a compelling setting.

Lovely Creatures by K.T. Byrski

Novella. Fantasy. This genre-blending fable just really has it all. There’s so much packed in here from a magic travelling circus, a deal with devil, and a sleeping princess. It’s astounding how deep both the worldbuilding and the character relationships feel considering its short length.

Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic by Emily Monosson

Nonfiction. Everything I want in a nonfiction book– detailed and technical, while still weaving in storytelling that tells you about the thing the book is about (in this case, Fungi) rather than just the people who work on the thing the book is about.

Awards Eligibility 2025 — November 27, 2025
Kerby, a sand colored chihuahua looks at the camera. He is wearing a pink and purple tye-dye sweater, and he has a unicorn hat that is slipping off his head. He has very large ears. The background is blue.

Awards Eligibility 2025

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/1 Comment

I can’t believe it’s already basically over and writing “2025” as the year when I date things still feels foreign. It’s always strange to me how this annual accounting of what things were *published* in a year, and therefore eligible for awards is so disjointed from the process of actually writing– how long it took ideas to gestate, when works were actually completed and in response to what, etc. etc. This year has been my most prolific for short fiction ever, and yet it represents works that were drafted from 2019-2023, a four year span of time, none of which was this year, or even last.

That being said, one of my eligible works this year was very timely, my essay for Strange Horizons on Speculative Poetry and the Hugos which was drafted frenetically as a group of poets including myself campaigned hard throughout multiple marathon Hugo Business meetings to pass the first hurdle in getting poetry a permanent spot on the Hugo ballot.

Awards are important, and involve strict time boundaries, but they aren’t the be-all-and-end-all of creativity or the creative process. Still, one’s got to play ball (and it is even a little fun, sometimes!). So, without further ado, my eligibility.

As per usual, I’ve collected what I think in my extremely biased opinion are the best few works of my ouvre published this year. But, my whole bibliography is always available here if you’d like to consider other works. Please reach out to me via my contact form if you would like a piece to review that is not free to read online and I will email you a free copy of anything!

Non-Fiction

Speculative Poetry and the Hugos (1300w) Strange Horizons, July 21 2025.

I’m recommending this for “Best Related Work” (or in the case of the Canadian Auroras, “Best Fan Writing/Publication”, as it was an unpaid article).

Short Fiction

The New Shape of Care (908 words) Analog May/June 2025.

Science Fiction. A dying woman must navigate her complicated feelings towards her carebot and the family she leaves behind.

The Knife that Makes the Cut (2700 words) Artifice and Access, January 2025.

Fantasy. The myth of of a magical panacea leads three travelers down a mysterious road. Suspicious of cure, one of them must evade the quest’s trap and find a new way to live.

Poetry

The Lowest Kind of Fable (19 lines), Just Keep Up Magazine, March 27 2025.

My usual fairy-tale inspired fare. Why might a woman want to be the princess in a fairytale story, even with how poorly they are treated?

Swamp Witch Season (30 lines) Solarpunk Magazine, Issue #24 Nov/Dec 2025.

We have hot girl summers, and cozy winters. What would a swamp witch season look like?

For each of us is a thing upon which worlds rest (25 lines) Polar Starlight, Issue #19 June 2025.

This poem asserts that you are a big, damn, magical universe. Inspired by Norse mythology and my giant Yggdrasil tattoo.

Thank you so much to anyone who does decide to consider me for awards. I am always very grateful when my work has any kind of impact. I’m also looking forward to putting together my new annual “favourite books of the year” round up in the next month or so, so watch out for that (or! If you just can’t wait, check out my favourite books of 2024, because like writing, reading can also happen outside of a year’s awards cycle.

xoxo

Lynne

Fall 2025 Appearances and Updates — September 19, 2025
This image has three leaves as bullet points for the following text: Robot Lovers, Friends, and Co-Workers w/ Madeline Ashby (m), Terri Favro & Stephen Graham King Saturday @ 10am Alanna the Lioness and the Queer Foundations of Fantasy w/ D.A. Straith (m), Faye Fabriel & Nara Monteiro Sunday @ 10am Speculative Songwriting w/ Ellie Athersmith, Brendan May & Mahaila Smith Sunday @ 1pm It is titled Can*Con Schedule 2025

Fall 2025 Appearances and Updates

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/Leave a comment

I dare say, a summer has never slipped by so quickly. The days come like words, seeemingly small in their number, and then before you know it somehow they’ve become substantial, like a novel, like weeks and months and seasons.

Upcoming Appearances

As always, Fall brings with it the dearest con to my heart…. Can*Con! Which of course, is always a great excuse to write these updates. This year, Can*Con is happening October 17-19 in Ottawa. Find me on the following panels. I am super jazzed for ALL of them!!!!

Robot Lovers, Friends, and Co-Workers w/ Madeline Ashby (m), Terri Favro & Stephen Graham King Saturday @ 10am

Alanna the Lioness and the Queer Foundations of Fantasy w/ D.A. Straith (m), Faye Fabriel & Nara Monteiro Sunday @ 10am

Speculative Songwriting w/ Ellie Athersmith, Brendan May & Mahaila Smith Sunday @ 1pm

Ahead of that, I’m also looking forward to attending my very first Rainbow Space Magic. I’ll be doing a virtual reading on Sunday, October 5th from 3-4pm Eastern, and all are welcome to attend for FREE.

Recent Publications

This summer I published quite a few stories and poems.

I’m quite proud of “The New Shape of Care,” my first story with Analog, and quite possibly my last. I’ve been torn about promoting it because although it’s a story that’s dear to my heart and intimately connected with some of my philosophical research interests, the recent purchase of Analog (alongside other magazines) by Must Read Magazines has been fraught. My contract was an older version prior to acquisition, but stories like these are giving me pause with promoting my work and submitting to the magazines going forward, alas. Here’s hoping for reform in the future.

Thankfully, anthologies have also been a friend to me lately, with “For All Love is Prayer,” appearing in Wordfire Press’ Chaotic Cupids: When Love Goes Awry, and “Love, an Act of Terraforming,” appearing in Angry Gable Press’ This Exquisite Topology. Finally, you can find my crone & faery story “The Fall that Dreams of Summer,” coming out the beginning of October in Unseen Agreements. It’s my love letter to O.R. Melling and I’m very happy its finally found a home.

If you’re more of a poetry person, I’m quite proud of “The Point of Measurement,” freely available from Baubles from Bones, and a number of poems in both summer issues of Polar Starlight. As always, you can find a full list of my work in my bibliography.

I was also hard at work campaigning this summer for a #PoetryHugo. If you’ve not been following that campaign I encourage you to check out our website https://www.poetryhugo.com/ to learn more about the initiative. We won the vote this year, but for something to become a Hugo, there must be an affirmative vote in two consecutive years, so that means the any support at the business meeting in LA in 2026 is greatly appreciated. If you’re looking for more on why its so important to have a poetry hugo, you can read my editorial over at Strange Horizons.

Other Writing Updates

I’m also super pleased to highlight that my poem, “Songs for Intergalactic Seas,” which came out last year from Trollsbreath has been selected for Year’s Best Canadian SFF Volume 3. It’s been such an honor to be a part of these anthologies, and this poem feels so Canadiana to me because of how it draws on Stan Roger’s ouvre of sea shanties. You can read it freely from Trollbreath, or preorder the anthology at the link above!

In other news, I’m still in the querying trenches for a few novel projects, and just finished the rough draft of a new near-future fairytale inspire science fiction project. Next, I’ll be turning my focus again to Not Just Playing Make Believe, implementing some beta reader comments and integrating some of their research suggestions before turning it into my editor by the end of this year! 2027 seems like an interminable length of time away, but like summer, I know it’ll be slipping through my grasp before I know it. Hopefully, you’re just a little more patient than I am!

That’s all for now.

xoxo

Lynne

Not Just Playing Make Believe — May 26, 2025

Not Just Playing Make Believe

/Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/2 Comments

It’s my absolutely pleasure to announce that my non-fiction book NOT JUST PLAYING MAKE-BELIEVE has been picked up by ECW Press.

I’m just finishing up the first draft and I already cannot wait to share it all with you. In the meantime, if you’re looking for some teasers about the kinds of things you will find in this book– I gotchu.

1. If you want some philosophy, check out my blog: Moral Guillotines! The book expands on many of the ideas and concepts mentioned there, as well as delving into all-new territory when it comes to the connections between philosophy and fiction.

    2. If you want to hear me talk about how I view philosophy and fiction, check out my recent Murmurstations podcast episode with host, Sonia Urlando. We discuss the relationship of ethics and fairytales, and how retellings can be used to craft arguments.

    3. If you want to read some philosophically-informed fiction of mine, you can check out my new flash fiction story, “The New Shape of Care,” out now from Analog magazine. This story was deeply informed by some of the research I did during my Ph.D and the impact of carebots on our philosophical notions of care.

    4. If you’re looking for a bite-sized snippet where I discuss the way in which a piece of fiction touches on philosophical considerations, check out my essay “It Takes (More Than?) Two” in Heartlines Magazine in which I discuss Hazelight Studio’s It Takes Two and how it shows relationships are not simply between two individuals.

    I’ll be sharing updates as the book progresses so look forward to cover reveals, pre-order links, and all kinds of promo over the next two years!

      New Works in Transitional Times — February 2, 2025

      New Works in Transitional Times

      /Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/Leave a comment

      For whatever reason, the line between one year and the next always seems to be a popular time for magazines to publish my things! I assume this is my own fault for tending towards the liminal and melancholy, but it’s my fault in the best way because it means I get to share some exciting December & January pubs with you!

      First, I want to highlight Songs for Intergalactic Seas, a poem that technically came out in December 2024 (and hence is eligible for Rhyslings, Auroras, and a special Hugo award for poetry this year!) but is now freely available to read. It combines my love of sea shanties and science fiction tropes. See if you can spot every Stan Rogers song I reference!

      Aside from that, I’ve had a whopping 3 short stories come out in the last ~31 days. Starting with Hibiscus Blooms at Her Heels in Exile Edition’s Through the Portal: Stories from a Hopeful Dystopia. Published on the last day of 2024, this story imagines a fabulist climate change future where a daughter struggles to understand her mother’s choice to conceal her magical horticultural magic in a world where things can’t easily grow.

      Next up, is The Care and Feeding of Your Void, appearing in Myriad: Nocturnal, edited by the absolutely incredible A.D. Sui. This is a little flash slipstream piece about how to nuture the void that is in each and every one of us.

      Finally, a story that is very close to my heart and has been searching for a home for a long time, The Knife that Makes the Cut, in Ella Holmes’ Artifice and Access. This is a fairytale about chronic pain, strongly inspired by Amanda Leduc’s Disfigured and Eli Clare’s Brilliant Imperfection. It’s very much a story that came out of my academic work on disability, and my own experiences as to how community acceptance in so many cases is intertwined with accessibility.

      2025 is shaping up to be my best year ever for fiction, and that makes me so happy! I love poetry too, but really, my answer when anyone asks me what I love writing best the answer is: whatever the next thing is. I hope you’ll stick around and love reading whatever the next thing is too. ❤ ❤ ❤

      Books I’ve Loved: 2024 — December 30, 2024

      Books I’ve Loved: 2024

      /Lynne Sargent, Ph.D/1 Comment

      This is something new I’m trying this year, because I do really love shouting out my favourite books and like, when you like something in 2024… you do it on the internet, right? (Pushing books on people at parties is genuinely one of my favourite activities. I love sending people home with books that I think they’ll like.)

      So, here are some of my favourite books I read in 2024 and a few brief sentences on why I loved each of them. This is in reverse chronological reading order and I’ve separated it out into books that came out in 2024, and other books. The first is on top, so that if people are interested in checking them out for awards purposes they are just a little more visible. If you’re ever interested in a complete run down of everything I read and bad reviews about how I feel about them, you can find my goodreads here. (Yes, I use goodreads. Network effect, switching costs, it works for me, etc.). Fair warning, I read a LOT. The total for 2024 at the time of writing this was 116 books.

      Favourite 2024 Books of 2024

      Baby Cerberus by Natasha Ramoutar. A poetry collection which lovingly and devastatingly pays homage to all your favourite nerdy millenial cultural touchstones from Pokemon to Sailor Moon. It’s nostalgia without fetishization. The breadth of style is breathtaking.

      Glass Houses by Madeline Ashby. This lady fucking gets exactly how horrific the world of tech is, and pulls no punches. Twisty and cliffhangery without being frustrating, a perfect example of a page turner.

      Into the Sunken City by Dinesh Thiru. An incredible gender-flipped version of Treasure Island set in a climate-change informed futuristic drowned world. It pulls such wonderful themes from its source material and elevates them by finding such harmony in the setting of the retelling.

      *Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. This book didn’t come out in 2024. But it’s in the 2024 list because I loved this book so much I am so confident I will also love the sequel (Heavenly Tyrant) which just came out like last week. I am just waiting for my hold from the library to come in so I can immediately devour it. The best revenge narrative ever. An unrelenting protagonist for the ages. Also there’s mechs.

      Favourite 2024 Books of NOT 2024

      Soulstar by C.L. Polk. It’s so hard to nail the landing on series, and this is the kind of ending that elevates every book that comes before it. Queer resistance at its finest.

      I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane. This is the kind of more literary leaning spec that I often bounce off of, but its deeply strange world has such strong characters and emotions at its core that it holds together. Deeply complicated and thoughtful, complete with some of the most dazzling prose I’ve ever seen.

      Thistlefoot by Gennarose Nethercott. Probably the book that made me cry the hardest this year. It’s beautiful, and fun, and then it’s devastating. One of those ethereal stories about stories that allows you to hold the broken and wholeness of the world together in the palms of your hands at the same time.

      To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose. The best dragon riding book ever, probably. An incredible anti-colonialist narrative with the most likeable, morally centered character I have ever encountered. Did I mention it’s polya too? I can’t wait for the sequel.

      My Body is Distant by Paige Maylott. The most interestingly written memoir I’ve ever encountered. It made me feel new things about writing and reality.

      The Terraformers by Analee Newitz. There’s a talking moose. It’s lovely crunchy sf that’s mostly about city planning. It’s inspired by Saskatchewan (who knew Newitz could make me love Saskatchewan so much?!). What’s not love?

      Xanax Cowboy by Hannah Green. Genre-bending confessional poetry with an unhinged, passionate rawness I haven’t felt since I was a teenager reading Plath. The way it plays with form and narrator is something that’s really lingered for me.

      Seeds for the Swarm by Sim Kern. The best possible version of a dystopian YA novel that made me feel like I was 13 and devouring Scott Westerfeld again. The clifi fiction we need. I’m really hoping that we do get the sequels at some point, but even if that doesn’t happen, I still think this one is worth reading!!

      There you have it! My favourite roughly 10% of books I read this year. There were so many other wonderful ones, and maybe those will be a better fit for you, but that’s how it goes! I am so grateful that we live in a world filled with wonderful words, and I’m looking forward to reading even more in 2025!

      Design a site like this with WordPress.com
      Get started